Prior to the shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, the term “bump stock” wasn’t a familiar one to most people. Even among gun owners, the devices weren’t big sellers.
A bump stock allowed the gunman in the Las Vegas shooting to make a semi-automatic rifle function more like a fully-automatic one by bumping the trigger so that it had a quicker fire.
Following the shooting, there was rare bipartisan support to get rid of them. Despite the support, Congress never took action and many blamed the National Rifle Association.
However, reports now indicate that the Trump administration will soon outline a federal rule that would officially ban the devices.
“I would call it the bare minimum of steps, says Elizabeth Becker, a volunteer with the gun advocacy group Moms Demand Action in Las Vegas.
“We do want to see bump stocks regulated, seeing as they create machine guns out of semi-automatic weapons, but there is a lot more to do on this issue.”
Becker says she believes more substantive changes to gun laws are coming, thanks to the new Democrats recently elected to the House.
But not all gun owners are on board with the proposal.
"If you're a law-abiding citizen in America and you have a clean record, you should be able to own anything you want," says Mel “Dragon Man” Bernstein, owner of Dragonman gun store in Colorado Springs.
Reports indicate the new rule would force owners to turn in or destroy bump stocks within 90 days.
